This article was originally published on CDSB's website following the release of its EU environmental reporting handbook.

From 2016, certain companies in EU Member States are required to report non-financial information in their management report, but what could this look like?

The Directive 2014/95/EU on the disclosure of non-financial and diversity information (NFR Directive), amends the Accounting Directive 2013/34/EU to require certain large companies to disclose information on policies, risks and outcomes as regards environmental matters, social and employee aspects, respect for human rights, anti-corruption and bribery issues, and diversity in their board of directors.

Considering supply chains are responsible for up to four times the greenhouse gas emissions of a company’s direct operations and many suppliers operate in water-stressed areas of the globe, this makes sense from an environmental savings standpoint.

To this end, we’ve seen major corporations like Apple push for more rigorous environmental standards and renewable energy use across its supply chain — and publish regular supply chain audit reports detailing suppliers’ progress — and Nike creating an entirely new apparel supply chain company that will “embed sustainability and transparency into the business.”

The latest version of Greenstone’s Enterprise software now includes the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Using Greenstone’s CSR Frameworks module, clients can now collect, manage and report data to help them understand their contributions to all 17 of the SDGs. This new feature is mapped and aligned with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)’s G4 framework to enable clients to streamline their non-financial reporting.

This year the Business & Climate Summit was hosted by The Climate Group in London on 28th and 29th June. Greenstone was selected as the event footprint partner for the 2-day event and the footprint report, detailing the carbon emissions associated with the conference, has recently been published.